Europe’s elite club competition, the
UEFA Champions League, returns to our screens this week with some hotly anticipated first-round matches to look forward to. English giants Liverpool and Tottenham are in action against Paris St Germain and Inter Milan respectively while Spanish champions Barcelona welcome Holland’s Eredivisie winners PSV Eindhoven to the Camp Nou.
BARCELONA VS PSV EINDHOVEN – CAMP NOU STADIUM, BARCELONA
Barcelona extended their perfect start to the new La Liga season by coming from a goal down to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 this past weekend with Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele each bagging their third goal of the campaign.
PSV are flying high off the back of their third Eredivisie title in the last four seasons. Mark van Bommel’s side trounced Den Haag 7-0, taking their goal tally to 21 for the season on Saturday as they prepare for their opening match in a tough Group B which also contains
Inter Milan and Tottenham.
INTER MILAN VS TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR – SAN SIRO, MILAN
Internazionale find themselves in unfamiliar territory languishing down in 15
th place in Serie A having notched up just one win from their opening four fixtures. Despite netting in each of his two previous appearances for Inter, World Cup finalist with Croatia Ivan Perisic was unable to help prevent a 1-0 home defeat to Parma on Saturday prior to the visit of Spurs on Tuesday.
Tottenham will be looking to bounce back from consecutive 2-1 defeats in the English Premier League when they travel to Italy on Tuesday. Since beating Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford in August, Spurs have struggled amidst the news that the opening of their new stadium would be delayed further still.
The pair have met four times previously in the Champions League, most recently in the round-of-16 in 2013, when despite losing the second-leg 4-1 at the San Siro, Spurs secured a spot in the last-eight on the away goals rule courtesy of a 3-0 home win at White Hart Lane a week earlier.
A stunning Gareth Bale hat-trick in October 2010 was not enough to secure anything from the game as Spurs eventually lost 4-3 in the only other tie to be played between the pair in Milan.
LIVERPOOL VS PARIS ST GERMAIN – ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL
Another two teams with a 100% record so far this season go head-to-head in Group C action in arguably the standout fixture of the first round.
Liverpool will look to the familiar front-three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to do the damage on Tuesday with the trio already contributed eight of the teams eleven goals between them. Firmino is the current man in form with the Brazilian having found the back of the net in each of his sides last two wins over Leicester and Tottenham respectively.
PSG are the only unbeaten sides left in France’s top-flight and already have a healthy five-point lead over their closest challengers Lille. Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani has scored in each of his last three appearances including in the 4-0 win over St Etienne on Friday and will be eager to get off the mark in the Champions League this season when his side take to the famous Anfield turf on Tuesday.
The duo faced off in the European Cup Winner’s Cup in April 1997 with PSG coming out on top 3-2 aggregate victors over the two legs. The corresponding fixture back then ended 2-0 to Liverpool with Robbie Fowler and Mark Wright on the scoresheet for the hosts but it was not enough to overturn the 3-0 deficit they suffered in the first leg.
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